Renovation

A renovation for another level, this addition utilises the existing steel structure to elevate two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a garden above the low-lying existing single-storey house. Responding to the expressed client brief for space, light, and air, the additional level breathes new life into the tight site without inhibiting views out across the neighbouring rooftops. Set around a multi-faceted highlight window detail, the new spaces are given the air they deserve, providing the family with a new dimension of liveability while minimising the destruction and waste of the existing building.

The “Artist N’s House” is a remodeling project of a single-family house originally built in 1969, where an artist couple had lived for over a decade. Rather than replacing the existing structure, the project began with the question of how to preserve the accumulated lifestyle of both the residents and the surrounding neighborhood, while introducing new spatial possibilities suited to contemporary life.

The more than 300 modular student dormitories on the VUB campus, designed by modernist architect Willy Van Der Meeren in 1972, were once at risk of demolition. Today, the twelve modules included in this project not only act as a catalyst for preservation but also guide the transition of the remaining buildings towards a circular renovation model.

The purpose of the renovation is to revive an urban apartment into a space as a second house. Responding to the client’s request of ‘living an extraordinary life in a versatile space’, I put focus on the design of the opening in the beginning.

At the entrance to the Po Valley, in the province of Cuneo, a house with a simple, compact profile reveals itself gradually. The construction does not appear to flaunt striking gestures, but rather blends discreetly among its neighbors — tall apartment blocks, clumsy detached houses, a constellation of buildings without particular quality. Yet appearances are deceiving. A radical transformation, partly concealed within its own volume, lies at the origin of ErranteArchitetture’s project for Casa BM: an intervention that dismantles the existing structure to generate new spatial configurations and distinct atmospheres. It is an apparently paradoxical operation, conducted in the spirit of artistic research and self-construction practices.

At the entrance to the Po Valley, in the province of Cuneo, a house with a simple, compact profile reveals itself gradually. The construction does not appear to flaunt striking gestures, but rather blends discreetly among its neighbors — tall apartment blocks, clumsy detached houses, a constellation of buildings without particular quality. Yet appearances are deceiving. A radical transformation, partly concealed within its own volume, lies at the origin of ErranteArchitetture’s project for Casa BM: an intervention that dismantles the existing structure to generate new spatial configurations and distinct atmospheres. It is an apparently paradoxical operation, conducted in the spirit of artistic research and self-construction practices.